[pyrite]

just wondering if i could get an opinion on this, sorry if i'm in the wrong forum but i couldn't find anything audio-specific...

i have a C2D macbook and i've just ordered an Mbox 2 Pro - without realizing that with only one FW400 port on the Macbook, my external audio drive will no longer be able to be plugged in at the same time as the Mbox. I know that firewire can be chained, but would this work properly for recording, and would i get optimal performace from both units this way? (with Mbox2Pro plugged direct into Macbook, HD chained off Mbox)...

another alternative would be getting a USB2 enclosure for the drive, but digidesign only officially support FW400 drives with oxford 911 chipset, and claim that USB2 performance will be considerably worse for recording...

any thoughts?

[Silencer]

Daisy chaining the HD to the Mbox should be fine for your use, depending on how many tracks your recording at once, and how large your session is going to be.

Even if your recording 4/6 tracks to the external HD you'll be fine.
If your recording 4/6 tracks into a session with 20 / 30 tracks being played off the External you'll probably end up with a few disk write errors popping up.

I have my Motu 828 daisy chained with a Lacie D2 and have had no issues to this day in recording multiple tracks.

Playing back sessions with 70 tracks off my external HD in Cubase with my MBP has also been fine.

Just see how you go, if you get warnings coming up, try freezing some existing tracks.